Elegant looks and a fast refresh rate can’t make up for poor colour accuracy and a low contrast ratio

Pros

Three-sided borderless design

AMD FreeSync

Cons

Not as responsive as rivals

Extreme overshoot ghosting with Strong Overdrive

Poor contrast ratio and colour accuracy

*** Note : £1 = $1.39 (correct at time of post)

If you’re an avid PC gamer, you’ll want a 144Hz gaming monitor. A fast display provides a huge leap over a regular 60Hz screen, assuming your PC and graphics card can keep up. The smoother frame rate will help you see enemies faster and react a millisecond sooner. Plus, it just looks better than a regular display. And you don’t have to spend a fortune, either, as proved by the £250 AOC G2590PX.

What you need to know

The G2590PX is a 24.5in Full HD gaming monitor with AMD FreeSync technology built in. It has a stylish design that’s bezel-free on three sides and a decent array of connections and a fully adjustable stand. It’s a competent gaming monitor at a decent price, but it isn’t the best you can get for your money.

Price and competition

At the time of writing, the AOC G2590PX has yet to appear in the shops, however, I’ve been informed by AOC that it’ll cost £249 when it does.

At this price, it isn’t short of competitors; there’s the Acer XF240H at around £190, the AOC G2460PF at around £210and the BenQ ZOWIE XL2411 for around £230. These monitors aren’t as minimalist as the AOC or as stylish but all have a 144Hz Full HD TN panel.

The class leader, however, in this price bracket is the impressive Samsung C24FG73, which costs around £250. It uses a VA panel and delivers superior colour accuracy and a higher contrast ratio than any other monitor I’ve reviewed at this price.

Features, design and build quality

The G2590PX’s best feature is its elegant, minimalist design. The top, left and right edges are effectively borderless and only the bottom edge has a chunky bezel. I like the red and black colour scheme AOC has opted for, too; it adds a touch of visual interest without going over the top.

Despite the svelte, designer looks, though, this is a practical monitor. The stand can pivot into portrait, tilt back and forth from -3.5 to 19.5-degrees and you can adjust the height by 130mm as well. If you want something even more flexible or you prefer to wall mount your monitor, there’s a 100 x 100mm Vesa mount at the back as well.

As for connectivity, that’s pretty standard. Video inputs are covered by a pair of HDMI 1.4 ports, a single DisplayPort 1.2 and one VGA. There are four Type-A USB 3.0 ports at the back of the monitor with one offering fast-charging capabilities and you also get a 2W speaker built-in. You won’t want to listen to music on this, though – it’s far too tinny and lacks any kind of bass.

The onscreen controls for the monitor are comprehensive and include a full set of picture controls. This includes colour temperature, contrast and Overdrive, with an Input Lag mode thrown in for good measure. AOC also provides a selection of genre-specific gaming profiles to choose from, such as FPS and RTS.

Finally, the monitor supports AMD FreeSync in the 30Hz to 144Hz range. If you own a compatible AMD graphics card you’ll be able to enjoy tear-free gaming with litt. There’s also V-Sync for owners of Nvidia graphics cards but this does add a fair amount of input lag. You’re better off choosing a G-Sync compatible monitor instead.

Image quality

Alas, at this point, things start to fall apart for the AOC G2590PX and it’s the image quality that proves its undoing. The monitor’s Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) 24.5in TN panel simply isn’t all that impressive.

Our in-house X-Rite i1 Display Pro colour calibrator revealed poor colour accuracy among a number of other weaknesses. The average Delta E was 2.91 with a maximum of 6.26, which to be fair is on a par with other monitors in its category, however, it was the low 373:1 contrast ratio that disappointed. The result is that dark scenes look grey and colours lack vibrancy.

At least peak brightness is pretty good. Here, the AOC reached 405cd/m² in User mode, and 349cd/m² in sRGB mode, promising good readability in bright ambient light. Its brightness uniformity isn’t bad for a gaming monitor, either, with a maximum variance of 16.5% in the top left-hand corner of the screen.

Gaming performance

Colour accuracy and contrast ratio aside, the most important aspect of this monitor is its gaming performance. The G2590PX works well with Overdrive set to Medium. However, with it set to Strong there’s plenty of inverse ghosting or purple haze.

In this mode, I found the panel a tad sluggish versus its rivals as well. Its input lag could be lower and its response time is a touch high. While this is fine for most people, it won’t satisfy more demanding gamers looking for the fastest, most responsive screen. Here, the AOC G2460PF, BenQ ZOWIE XL2411 and Samsung C24FG73 are better choices.

Verdict

The G2590PX is a stylish 144Hz monitor with some practical features, but it isn’t as responsive as its rivals, and its colour accuracy and contrast ratio lag behind the best, too.

If you’re a competitive gamer on a budget, I’d suggest the AOC G2460PF or the BenQ ZOWIE XL2411, but in this price bracket, it’s hard to look past the Samsung C24FG73, which combines great design with great gaming attributes and sterling image quality.